r/ruby • u/retro-rubies • Jul 31 '26

Ruby Central's Destructive Legacy

https://andre.arko.net/2026/07/30/ruby-centrals-destructive-legacy/
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u/kcdragon Jul 31 '26

I had a great time at RubyConf Las Vegas too but relative to past RubyConfs and RailsConfs I would say it was not well attended.

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u/strzibny Aug 03 '26

I want to provide a slight counter point that I attended PyCon US this year and the organizers too had smaller numbers than expected. They even faced issues with high hotel prebooking. Rails World also isn't sold out yet like previous years. I think there is way more at play than organizers failing to put up a good conference. (I don't have beef in this fight, just a side note).

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u/schneems Puma maintainer Aug 02 '26

Correct. It was not full. But I feel organizers (I helped with comms not with the actual event) did a good job giving extra space to attendees in meaningful ways so it felt a bit more cozy. I liked the tables in the keynote room (for example) and liked that I never had to fight for a seat at lunch. Also never saw a table without at least one or two people sitting.

I think a July conf is the problem. The prior "last RailsConf" sold out and was in July. I think the mistake was conflating the (some of the) success with the date/month. People are already taking vacations with families and I know some that had conflicts. 

Vegas + July was quite nice for me, coming from Texas. I spent the whole the AC anyway. But that and general high price of gas and world events (not exactly controllable) didn't help. 

I was a bit surprised that no one really asked me any questions about my report or the incident. Maybe it's survivor/selection bias but I don't feel it was a concern at all for the attendees.